Page 149 of Under Your Scars

I slip the eleven-carat purple diamond onto her delicate finger, kissing it before standing to my full height and then taking her lips in mine.

“You’re supposed to save the kiss until after we say,I do.”

“I do,” I whisper, taking her lips in mine again. “I do. I do. I do.”

Elena giggles against my lips. “I have a ring for you.” She leans over to grab a tiny red box hidden behind a pillow on the sofa.

She opens the box and then turns it so I can see inside.

It’s a simple black band. I lift it from the plush red velvet. Inside the band, engraved in gold, are our initials on either side of a monogrammed letter ‘R’.

Adoration fills my heart as I let her slip the ring onto my finger.

Technically this isn’t a marriage, it’s an engagement. We will have to apply for a marriage license and have an officiant hold a ceremony for us properly. Blah, blah, blah, none of the specifics matter.

She’s pledged her life to me as I’ve done to her, and it’s more than enough for me.

I begin to laugh as I kiss her again.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Just my present to you seems so stupid by comparison.”

She smirks against my lips. “Show me.”

She yelps as I lean down to pick her up bridal style. She is my bride, after all. I carry her through the mansion, to the garage. Parked directly in the middle of the room is a pearlescent white McLaren 720S, and a custom license plate that simply says, ‘ANGEL’.

“Christian, you didn’t!” She gasps as I set her down. “This is too much, you bought me a yacht two months ago!”

“Perks of being super rich.” I kiss the curve of her neck again. “I get to spoil you rotten. Ostentatiously and often.”

She tangles her small hands into the front of my jacket and pulls me in for a kiss. It’s hot and needy and she drags me backwards until her legs hit her new car. Then she lowers herself onto the hood of the car and spreads her legs to reveal that she’s not wearing any panties.

“Come here and spoil me,” she commands.

Jesus fuck,this woman is going to be the death of me.

I fall to my knees in front of her and then I spoil my angel with my mouth and hands, right there on the hood of the car, all damn night.

Best Christmas ever.

PART III

CHAPTER 46

THE SILENCER

Every night for ten days, at precisely 3 AM, like clockwork, I hear my least favorite sound.

Elena wakes up screaming at the top of her lungs until she starts gagging on the sounds coming from her throat, and then runs to the bathroom and barely makes it before emptying her stomach into the toilet.

I go with her to hold the loose hair that falls from her delicate braid away from her face. I rub her back, murmur how much I love her into her neck. It never takes her long to come back to reality, but when she does, it’s always in tears.

Elena slumps into my chest and I stroke her hair. “Same as last time?”

She nods, smearing the wetness on her cheeks across my bare chest, right against the name I carved into my heart.

It’s always the same nightmare. She’s back in that glass cage with Frank and Neil.